Forget Spurs, Everton Is The Premiership’s Fallen Giant

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Mr. C takes a break for talking about how Spurs are annoying him to why Everton are even worse.

Having been a Tottenham fan for just over 20 years I would know more than most what it is like to be in the shadow of your local rivals. Only picking up 2 trophies in the last 16 years is evidence of what a lean spell we are going through and although while this tally might please the likes of Newcastle and West Ham it is appalling for a club of our history and stature.

Over the last few months I have been highly critical of Tottenham in what I see as an underachievement and have been slaughtered by some, praised by others. In some ways I do accept that I may have been harsh, it made me reflect on the state of our club compare to others and it got me thinking.

Growing up Everton was one of the considered top 5 alongside with us, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd. They were challenging for trophies and rather fortunately piped us to the title back in 1987 where we were forced to concede it – victims of a crippling fixture pile up.

They say that a year is a long time but 20 years is even longer and since that epic title challenge, what happened to Everton?

I like Everton a lot… they’re usually guaranteed 4-6pts a season for Spurs, which is why their August victory was met by Spurs fans in the same way as losing to a Grimsby or Leicester in the cups. And have any other Spurs fans noticed how much we are despised by Everton fans? Why is that? It’s strange because we are respected by Liverpool fans and can easily drink before and after the game in good spirits… to me it shows Liverpool fans have a lot more class about them.

I always enjoy trips to Goodison Park; a stadium that is in some time warp and so decrepit it is a wonder how it ever receives its annual safety certificate – and rather fortunate to have a church in one corner of the ground. I reckon if over the years I would have to put up with watching players like, Preki, Barlow, Ward and more recently James Beattie and Andy Van Meyde, I would take great comfort knowing I had such a place to go after a game. The stadium is the perfect example of how a once great club has failed to move with the times and continually dines out on its illustrious past rather than address the present. Spurs fans have been guilty of this ourselves, but at least our club’s future looks very bright.

If you compare Everton’s current situation to ours at Tottenham it is like night and day. With the exception of Arteta I can’t think of any of the clubs players that would get into our starting X1. We are a team full of internationals including 6 in the current England squad with another 3 in the U21s, yet we are still 3 or 4 players away from a squad capable of making a Premiership challenge – so how many players do Everton need?

Everton supporters I’ve spoken to retort with the fact that they are “moving to a new stadium” and how they have great young players like “James Vaughn” .

But when exactly are you moving to this stadium? Where you getting the money to pay for it? Why is nothing concrete in place? Things are a mess and as for you array of young players like Vaughn and Emile Heskey II there is no one pushing through to what can only be described as best an average first XI. David Moyes has worked wonders in getting you up the top end of the table although its fair to say its not pretty to watch…Yes you finished 4th and 6th in the past three seasons but you must be deluded in thinking that you can break into the top 4 on a REGULAR basis. When you made it to Europe it was disappointing, highlighting the need for a better squad, I mean even Boro could make it to the UEFA cup final.

I think a lot of Everton’s problems had been the inability to compete in the transfer market and a lot of that has to be down to the lack of investment in the club. I know you can’t wave a magic wand and get funds but you have to ask yourselves what has been done over the years at Everton to make it an appealing to prospective investors. People wont touch Everton because there is so much work that has to be done…I mean my club went completely bust 17yrs ago and we have had to rebuild ourselves from scratch and here we are in a fantastic stadium, excellent young squad which is ever growing and judging by our share price are on the verge of being one of the next clubs to be bought out by big foreign takeover – sadly a requirement if you are to compete at the top in the modern game.

Everton is wasting away despite obvious talents of David Moyes and it’s a shame to see one of the former giants of the game with no long term hope of glory. It begs the original question what the hell has been going on there since they last won the title 20yrs ago this year?

Is it just down to a lack of investment? The constant buying of average players? Or is it the failure to recognise your imperfections and constantly live off your past…Tottenham use to do this until a few years ago when they made a conscious effort to change the constitution of the club from the top down, maybe Everton should think about doing the same.